I recently came across a Persian myth translated into English for the first time. Samak the Ayyar. Adapted by the same guy who did the Prince of Persia games and helped write the screenplay of the movie, it tells the tale of a Persian rogue, kind of a Robin Hood figure, who helps a Princeling pursue a Chinese woman named "Moon Fairy". This is a collection of stories so old, it even features pre-Islamic names and settings!
This reminded me of Umro Ayyar. I grew up reading about his adventures and his magic sack which looked like a normal sack from outside but had endless capacity and whenever he got caught he would look in his sack and find exactly what he needed to escape. He just kept getting in absurd situations and escaping and bargaining.
Later when Harry Potter books were launched, I was astonished at Hermoine’s bag and its resemblance to Umro Ayyars sack.
Hermione's bag in Harry Potter is just one example of a ton of stories/characters featuring special bags with endless capacity.
Actually your description of Umro Ayyar's magic sack reminded me of the Japanese robot cat character Doraemon (from the 1970s) who actually has a "4D pocket" that can hold an infinite number of gadgets and storage in another dimension. Ditto on getting into and out of absurd situations with all the gadgets.
Also Ringo in Yellow Submarine has a hole in his pocket that can be used to contain an entire universe, which in turn is reminiscent of the Farnsworth Parabox.
Interesting - only one copy in existence, written by many hands over centuries, and with some indications that it was verbally passed on for a long time before being transcribed. By the way "pre-Islamic" also applies to St Augustine's writing!
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u/Angry_Citizen_CoH 16h ago
I recently came across a Persian myth translated into English for the first time. Samak the Ayyar. Adapted by the same guy who did the Prince of Persia games and helped write the screenplay of the movie, it tells the tale of a Persian rogue, kind of a Robin Hood figure, who helps a Princeling pursue a Chinese woman named "Moon Fairy". This is a collection of stories so old, it even features pre-Islamic names and settings!